The Basketball Podcast: EP24 Liam Flynn on Coaching the Coaches

In this week’s basketball coaching conversation, professional basketball coach and consultant, Liam Flynn joins the podcast to discuss his core values and the basketball concepts that have shaped his philosophy.

Coach Flynn has seen the world in his twenty-five plus years of coaching experience. He has coached in Australia, Germany, New Zealand, and China.

• Five Years Coaching experience in German BBL & 2.BBL – s.Oliver Wuerzburg, Dresden Titans, Walter Tigers Tübingen and Gießen 46ers. ProA Champions, 2 Play Off Appearances.
• Three Years Head Coaching experience in New Zealand 1st League – Nelson Giants. 2 Playoff Appearances, 1 Grand Final
• Five Years Head Coaching experience in Australian 2nd League. – Townsville Heat (Queensland), Sturt Basketball Club (South Australia). 4 Playoff Appearances, 1 Grand Final.
• Six years experience as Assistant Coach in Australian National Basketball League (1st league) – Townsville Crocodiles, Adelaide 36ers. 3 Playoff Appearances.

Liam Flynn Quotes:

“If someone walked into a gym and watched your team play, how would you want them to describe your team?”

“A really important concept to teach young players is that of shot selection . . The way we frame it is, ‘Was there an advantage before we shot the ball?’ We want to create an advantage before we shoot.”

“The path definitely depends on, for us, the coverage that we see at the point of the screen and then where the help comes from and the next rotations behind the screen.”

“If we look at the offensive end . . if you’re developing a style of play, the first thing you want to look at is the pace.”

“With one of the teams I coached . . we were a walk-up, set offensive team after a made basket . . but on a missed basket we had no play calls and we ran and we played freely. If we weren’t able to create an advantage off that fast, free-flowing offense then we ran short clock sets.”

“I definitely think you need to have a core philosophy of what you’re about . . what I need to be able to do is use the coaching philosophy I’ve built over my 20-odd years of coaching and just tinker with the bits that bring out the best talents of my personnel.”

“We very much layer our verbiage — what the concept is, what the teaching point is, and then what that short verbal cue is. And we all talk the same language.”

“One of the big things that came out of my studies was when players were taught concepts through open questioning, they were better able to execute them under pressure.”

“When . . we’re playing the pick and roll and you have the ball in your hand . . you need to carry yourself like you’re captain of the court. You’re confident bordering arrogant . . That’s kind of the starting point before we get into anything regarding reads or actions.”

“We’re very big on teaching the players what the reads are in every scenario . . our players move into pre-rehearsed positions depending on what the coverage is.”

“We think about spacing before advantage. Create another advantage. And then we look for our shot.”

“If you want to be an aggressive team, then the first thing you’ve got to be thinking about is your pick-up point on defense.”

“When you’re guarding the ball, we like our players’ feet to be pulsing . . their feet will be constantly moving and their hands will be active.”

“If the ball’s in the backcourt and the man’s in the backcourt, you’re in the backcourt . . it creates more pressure.”

Click below to listen in if you listen on:

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Liam Flynn Breakdown:

1:00 – Introduction
2:00 – Coaching from 2 Different Countries
3:00 – Similar Philosophy with his same Coach
4:00 – China Influenced by the US Basketball?
5:00 – How he Develop his Coaching Philosophy?
6:00 – Core Values from his Philosophy
7:00 – “Attack with a Pass”
9:00 – Creating an Advantage on the Pick&Roll
10:00 – Mix of Phase and Style of Offense
12:30 – Adaptability of his Personnel
14:00 – Experiences of Coaching
15:00 – Verbal cues and words that he used
18:00 – How he called Plays?
20:00 – Open Questioning in his Coaching Style
22:20 – Involved Players in the Decision Making
24:00 – “Mid Pick&Roll”
25:00 – Spacing before Creating an Advantage
27:00 – Trick to teach students how to be successful in Ball Screen
29:00 – Other Concepts from the Mid Pick&Roll
30:30 – Cutting Off the Ball
32:00 – Full Court Defense
33:00 – Pressure on the Ball
35:00 – Disrupting and making Offense Feel Uncomfortable
36:30 – “If the ball is in the back court and your men is in the backcourt, you are in the backcourt”
38:30 – NBA Summer League Learnings
41:00 – Mike Longabardi’s Teachings to stimulate Coaching
43:00 – Translate to other Levels because of the Spacing
44:30 – How can coaches get his Videos? and Continuing to Share Coaching Ideas
45:30 – Closing Remarks

Liam Flynn

Bio: https://www.coachliamflynn.com/

Twitter:  https://twitter.com/coachliamflynn/

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